JPH0579884U - Electrical connector - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] When connecting a subunit and a main board through a connector, it is easy to fully automate the assembly. [Structure] The electric connector 1 is attached to a main board 55 together with the subunit 50 in a state of being connected to the tip of an electric cable 5 connected to the subunit 50.
The mounting screw 2 loosely inserted in the mounting hole 14a of the insulating housing 10 is screwed into the sub-unit 50, and is gently mounted to the sub-unit 50. The compression spring 3 is disposed between the insulating housing 10 and the subunit 50. When the connector 1 is attached to the main board 55 together with the subunit 50, the compression spring 3 urges the connector 1 to move. The contact end portions protruding outward are pressed against the main board 55 and brought into contact with the terminals on the main board.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a connector for electrical connection between a main board and a subunit mounted on the main board, and more specifically, it is attached to the tip of an electric cable extending to the subunit and mounted on the main board via its built-in contact. The present invention relates to an electric connector configured to electrically connect a corresponding terminal and an electric cable.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 For example, a computer keyboard is composed of a subunit having predetermined input keys and a main board having a device for processing an input signal from each key, and is made by integrally assembling both. .. The sub unit and the main board are connected by an electric cable. When connecting the electric cable, the tip of the cable extending from the sub unit is connected to the main board via an electric connector. For this reason, when assembling such a keyboard, the connector is attached to the main board by a surface mount, etc., while the cable is attached to the subunit by extending outward. It was designed to be plugged into a connector to connect both.

[0003]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 By the way, it has been required to improve the production efficiency by automating as much as possible in such an assembly, and in the assembly of the above-mentioned keyboard, the automation has been achieved as much as possible. However, on the assembly line, it is necessary to insert the tip of the cable extending from the subunit into the connector already fixed on the main board to connect the two, and conventionally only this work was done manually. Was done in. As a result, this work process becomes a bottleneck, hindering the complete automation of the assembly line, and hindering the improvement of production efficiency.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides an electric connector having a structure that facilitates the complete automation of the assembly when connecting the subunit and the main board via the connector. The purpose is to provide.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to achieve such an object, the electrical connector according to the present invention is configured by holding a plurality of contacts in an insulating housing so that a part of each contact end portion projects outward. It is configured to be mounted on the main board together with this subunit in a state in which the electrical connector is connected to the front end of the electric cable connected to the subunit. Here, the insulating housing is movably attached to the subunit and is biased in a direction away from the subunit by spring means arranged between the insulating housing and the subunit. Further, the insulating housing has at least a pair of positioning pins on the side facing the main board, and these positioning pins are fitted in the positioning holes formed in the main board to determine the mounting position on the main board. Is becoming Then, when the insulating housing, together with the subunit, is fitted into the positioning hole with the positioning pin and attached to the main board, the insulating housing is pressed and held on the main board by the urging force of the spring means and is projected outward. Each contact end is brought into contact with each terminal on the main board.

[0006]

[Action]

 When the electric connector having such a structure is used, the electric connector is previously coupled to the tip of the electric cable connected to the sub unit, and is gently attached to the sub unit by the attaching screw. Since the insulating housing can be moved relative to the subunit to some extent by being installed in such a loose manner, the insulating housing receives a biasing force of the spring means and is separated from the subunit to some extent. Become. Next, the electrical connector is attached to the main board together with the subunit while being coupled to the tip of the cable and loosely attached to the subunit. At this time, the positioning pin of the insulating housing is fitted into the positioning hole of the main board, and the insulating housing (that is, the connector) is mounted and positioned with respect to the main board. It is desirable that the tip end of the positioning pin is formed in a tapered shape. By doing so, it is easy to fit the positioning pin into the positioning hole and the sub-unit can be easily assembled. Further, in this mounted state, the insulating housing is pressed and held on the main board by the biasing force of the spring means, and the contact ends protruding outward from the insulating housing are connected to the terminals on the main board. Is contacted with. As described above, when the connector of the present invention is used, the electric connector can be attached to the main board at the same time when the subunit is attached to the main board. Therefore, it is easy to automate this assembling work on the assembly line.

[0007]

【Example】

 Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. A connector 1 according to the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, which comprises an insulating housing 10 made of an insulating material and a plurality of contacts 20 aligned and held in the insulating housing 10. It The insulating housing 10 is integrally configured of a body 11 having a contact disposing space 11a penetrating vertically and a cover 15 connected to the body 11 via a hinge portion 10a.

In the body 11, a contact arranging space 11a is opened in a step portion 11c which is slightly lowered on the upper surface thereof, and a semi-cylindrical strain relief groove 13 is provided on the front side of the opening portion. On the left and right sides of the body 11, there are provided mounting arms 14 each having a mounting hole 14a that penetrates vertically. Locking protrusions 12 are formed on the left and right ends of the front surface of the body 11. Positioning pins 19 projecting downward are provided on the left and right ends of the lower surface of the body 11.

The cover 15 is foldable around the hinge portion 10a as shown by an arrow A in FIG. For this reason, the hinge groove 10b is formed in the hinge portion 10a, and this folding is facilitated. However, if the hinge portion 10a has sufficient flexibility, this hinge groove 10b is not particularly necessary. With the cover 15 opened as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, locking arms 16 having locking holes 16a are provided at the left and right ends of the rear end. In addition, a semi-cylindrical strain relief protrusion 17 is formed on the rear portion of the upper surface, and a pair of left and right check holes 18 are formed through the front side thereof.

A plurality of contact holding grooves 11b extending vertically are formed on the rear wall surface of the contact arrangement space 11a of the body 11, and the intermediate portion 23 of the contact 20 is press-fitted into each contact holding groove 11b. Thus, each contact 20 is fixedly held in the contact arranging space 11a. In this fixedly held state, as shown in FIG. 2, the upper end 21 of each contact 20 projects slightly above the step 11c, and the lower end contact 22 projects below the lower surface 11d of the body 11. ..

The connector 1 thus configured is connected to the tip of the flexible cable 5, as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the flexible cable 5 is made by disposing a plurality of conductive cable layers 7 in parallel in the longitudinal direction on an insulating base sheet 6 and covering it with a cover sheet 8. Since the connector 1 is connected to the tip of the flexible cable 5, the cover sheet 8 at the tip of the flexible cable 5 is partly peeled off, and the tip of the conductive cable layer 7 is exposed as shown in FIG.

Then, with the exposed surface facing downward, the flexible cable 5 is placed on the stepped portion 11c of the body 11, as shown in FIG. Since the upper ends of the contacts 20 project above the step 11c, the exposed conductive cable layers 7 contact the upper ends 21 of the corresponding contacts 20, respectively. Next, as shown by the arrow A in FIG. 4, the cover 15 is folded with the hinge portion 10a as the center, and is overlaid on the body 11 as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. At this time, the locking arm 16 rides over the locking projection 12, the locking projection 12 enters the locking hole 16a, and the cover 15 is locked and held in a state of overlapping with the body 11.

At this time, the strain relief projections 17 are inserted into the strain relief groove 13 so as to sandwich the inside of the tip of the flexible cable 5 slightly, and the flexible cable 5 is fixedly held at this position. As a result, the connector 1 is attached to the tip of the flexible cable 5, and each conductive cable layer 7 of the flexible cable 5 comes into contact with the upper end portion 21 of the corresponding contact 20 to be electrically connected.

In this way, the flexible cable 5 is placed on the stepped portion 11c of the body 11 of the connector 1 and then the cover 15 is simply folded so as to be overlaid on the body 11 to connect the flexible cable 5 to the connector 1. It can be carried out. Since the arrangement of the distal end portion of the flexible cable 5 can be observed through the check hole 18, it is possible to check the contact state between each conductive cable layer 7 and the upper end 21 of the contact 20. it can.

After being attached to the tip of the flexible cable 5 as described above, the connector 1 is attached to the subunit 50 by the attaching bolts 2 and 2 as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. The mounting bolt 2 is inserted into the mounting hole 14a of the mounting arm 14 and is screwed into the screw 51 of the subunit 50. However, the outer diameter of the mounting bolt 2 is smaller than the inner diameter of the mounting hole 14a. The bolt 2 is loosely inserted into the mounting hole 14a.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the mounting bolt 2 is screwed into the screw 51 of the subunit 50 so that the connector 1 is located at a position slightly apart from the subunit 50. Therefore, the connector 1 is in a state of being loosely attached to the sub unit 50 with the attachment bolt 2 screwed into the screw 51, and the connector 1 is relatively movable with respect to the subunit 50. .. When the mounting bolt 2 is screwed into the subunit 50, the compression spring 3 is interposed between the subunit 50 and the connector 1 as illustrated. Therefore, the connector 1 is biased by the compression spring 3 in the direction away from the subunit 50, and a space of distance d is formed between the two.

The flexible cable 5 is a cable extending from the inside of the subunit 50. As a result, the connector 1 is attached to the tip of the flexible cable 5 extending from the subunit 50, and the connector 1 is attached by the mounting bolts 2 to the subunit 50. It can be loosely attached to. That is, the connector 1 is first attached to the member (subunit) to which the flexible cable 5 is attached.

When the assembly of the subunit is completed as described above, the entire subunit 50 is assembled on the main board 55 by using, for example, a robot. It is mounted on the main board 55 as shown in FIG. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 11, the main board 55 is provided with positioning holes 56 having the same pitch and substantially the same diameter as the positioning pins 19. Further, a plurality of terminal patterns 57 are provided between these positioning holes 56.

As shown in FIG. 9, the subunit 50 is moved downward and mounted on the main boat 55 from a state in which the subunit 50 is located at a predetermined position above the main board 55. At this time, the connector 1 is also moved downward together with the subunit 50, and as shown in FIG. 10, the positioning pin 9 having a tapered tip is inserted into the positioning hole 56 to be positioned and compressed. The connector 1 is pressed and held on the main board 55 by the biasing force of the spring 3. Although the tip of the positioning pin 9 is tapered and thin, this makes it possible to easily insert the positioning pin 9 into the positioning hole 56, which facilitates automation of assembly.

At this time, since the lower end contact portion 22 of each contact 20 in the connector 1 projects downward from the lower surface 11d of the body 11, the lower end contact portion 22 contacts the terminal pattern layer 57 on the main board 55. They come into contact with each other and are pressed and held in the contact state by the urging force of the compression spring 3. As a result, the subunit 50 and the main board 55 are electrically connected via the connector 1 and the flexible cable 5 connected thereto.

Here, as described above, the connector 1 is gently attached to the sub unit 50 via the attachment bolts 2, and when the connector 1 is biased by the compression spring 3, the connector 1 is separated from the sub unit 50 by a distance d. (See Figure 9). Therefore, even if the distance D (see FIG. 10) between the subunits 50 is mounted on the main board 55 and the subunits 50 are mounted at an angle (see FIG. 12), the distance D is reduced by the distance. It is possible to absorb in the space part of d. Therefore, the subunit 50 and the main board 55 can be electrically connected in a stable manner, and both of them can be easily assembled, which facilitates automation of assembly.

[0022]

[Effect of the device]

 As described above, in the present invention, the electric connector is connected to the tip of the electric cable connected to the subunit, and is mounted on the main board together with the subunit. The mounting screws loosely inserted in the mounting holes of the above are screwed into the mounting screw holes of the subunit so that they can be loosely mounted on the subunit. Further, the spring means is arranged between the insulating housing and the sub unit, and when the insulating housing is attached to the main board together with the subunit, the insulating housing is mounted on the main board by the urging force of the spring means. Each contact end protruding outward is brought into contact with each terminal on the main board, so that the insulation housing can move relative to the subunit to some extent. At the same time, it receives a biasing force of the spring means and is separated from the subunit to some extent.

The electrical connector is attached to the main board together with the subunit in the state where the electrical connector is attached to the tip of the cable and is gently attached to the subunit, and the insulating housing is urged by the biasing force of the spring means at this time. Is pressed and held on the main board, and each contact end protruding outward from the insulating housing is brought into contact with each terminal on the main board. As described above, when the connector of the present invention is used, the electric connector can be attached to the main board at the same time when the subunit is attached to the main board. Therefore, it is easy to automate this assembling work on the assembly line. In addition, since the connector is loosely attached to the subunit and can move relative to the subunit to some extent, even if there is some variation in the mounting position of the main board with respect to the subunit, this variation will be It can be absorbed by relative movement, and both can be stably electrically connected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electric connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing this connector along the arrow II-II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view of this connector.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which a flexible cable is placed on the connector.

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the flexible cable.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a state in which a flexible cable is connected to the connector.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a flexible cable is connected to the connector.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the connector, a mounting bolt for mounting the connector on a subunit, and a compression spring.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing a connector attached to a subunit and a main board to which the connector is attached.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the connector attached to the subunit is attached to the main board.

FIG. 11 is a plan view showing a main board.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the connector attached to the subunit is attached to the main board.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Connector 2 Mounting Bolt 3 Compression Spring 10 Insulation Housing 11 Body 14 Mounting Arm 15 Cover 18 Check Hole 20 Contact 50 Sub Unit 55 Main Board

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A plurality of contacts are arranged and held in an insulating housing in such a manner that a part of each contact end portion protrudes outward, and are connected to a tip of an electric cable connected to a subunit. An electrical connector configured to be mounted on a main board together with the subunit, wherein the insulating housing is movably attached to the subunit and is disposed between the subunit and the spring means. Is biased in a direction away from the sub-unit, and the insulating housing has at least a pair of positioning pins on the side facing the main board, and is fitted into a positioning hole formed in the main board. The main body is mounted and positioned on the main board. When the positioning pin is fitted into the positioning hole and attached to the main board, the insulating housing is pressed and held on the main board by the urging force of the spring means and is projected outward. An electrical connector characterized in that each contact end is brought into contact with each terminal on the main board.